1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data processing system, which can divide a processing content into a plurality of processing units to systemize the divided processing contents.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various work processing systems are present in correspondence with the types of industries and businesses. For example, the work processing systems include financial terminals for account processing in the financial business, POS terminals for commodity management processing, sales management processing, customer management processing, and the like in the retail business, portable terminals utilized for reordering in the retail business, and as consultation terminals for supporting sales persons in various business fields, production management terminals for production management processing in the manufacturing business, and the like.
When a work processing system of this type is constituted, works to be systemized are classified into some groups, and application systems are constituted in units of systems and sub systems. For example, in an order reception associated work program for performing order reception associated works, the order reception associated works such as an order reception work, a response delivery date setting work, a delivery work, and the like are constituted by a series of programs. Predetermined files are prepared for these programs, and data processing is executed based on the files.
However, such a conventional data processing apparatus processes associated works using a series of programs. For this reason, when a system according to user's requirements is to be constituted, modifications of the programs are troublesome since various works are present depending on users. More specifically, when an already completed application system is to be utilized, both system functions which are suitable for the flow of existing work processing, and those which are not suitable for the flow are present. In this case, not only unsuitable program portions but also the overall programs must be modified.
Since a unit of systemization corresponds to a group of works, the completed results (programs, files, and the like) do not always perfectly coincide with actual works, and it tends to be difficult for users to understand system functions.
The conventional data processing apparatus processes associated works using common files based on the series of programs. For this reason, each processing unit cannot manage which data can be used in which works. More specifically, in some conventional apparatuses, a series of processing operations can be divisionally processed. However, since data management is not clearly divided, which data can be processed or which data should be processed often becomes unclear, thus disturbing smooth work operations.